Navarin d’Agneau – A Spring Lamb Stew

By Le Chef’s Wife – Anina Belle Giannini

Navarin d’Agneau is a classic French recipe, reportedly inspired by the French naval fleet’s victory in Navarino Bay in the Peloponnese in the 1800s. Flavorful braised lamb is sublime in a rich, velvety sauce with tender spring vegetables.

One of the easiest and quickest French stews to make, it is a favorite for Sunday supper or a special occasion such as Mother’s Day.

Ingredients:

• 3.5 lbs lamb neck meat, chopped into 2-inch pieces (you can ask your local butcher to do this for you, as well as trim off the extra fat)
• 10 small carrots
• 8 mini zucchini
• 4 patty pan squash
• 2 cups snap peas
• 2 shallots, sliced
• 4 cloves garlic, chopped
• 6 sprigs fresh thyme
• ½ cup tomato paste
• 2 cups water
• 1 cup veal or beef demi-glace
• 1.5 cups dry white wine. A high-acid white wine such as Pinot Gris or Sauvignon Blanc works beautifully here.
• 1 tablespoon olive oil

Instructions:

Preheat your oven to 375°F.

In a 6.5-quart Le Creuset Provence braiser, sear the pieces of lamb on all sides. You don’t want to crowd the lamb or it won’t sear—do this in batches.

Once the lamb is seared, set the meat aside in a bowl. In the same braiser, add the chopped garlic, sliced shallots, and 2 carrots, sliced. Sauté until the shallots become translucent, mixing with all the lamb juices left on the bottom of the braiser.

Mix in the tomato paste.

Deglaze the pan with the wine, making sure to scrape all of the flavor off the bottom with a silicone spatula.

Add the lamb pieces back into the braiser along with the thyme, veal demi-glace, and water. There should be a generous amount of liquid covering the meat. The sauce will reduce beautifully in the braiser.

Place the braiser, uncovered, on the middle rack of the oven for 2 hours.

Halfway through, stir the lamb, taking extra care to scrape the flavorful bits off the sides of the pan into the sauce with a silicone spatula or basting brush.

Twenty minutes before the lamb is ready, blanch your vegetables. For this, I like to set up a couple of pots on the stove with salted boiling water. Blanch each type of vegetable separately, then immediately transfer to a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking process. This preserves vibrant color, locks in flavor, and prevents the vegetables from becoming mushy.

Recommended blanching times:

• Small carrots, peeled: 8 minutes
• Patty pan squash: 8 minutes
• Mini zucchini: 5 minutes
• Snap peas: 3 minutes

Once the two hours are up, remove the braiser from the oven, your kitchen will smell incredible!

With a ladle, skim the fat off the top of the stew and discard. Lamb is a fatty meat, and you don’t need the extra layer of fat on top.

If you want the liquid to reduce further, you can place the braiser directly back on the stovetop over medium heat and let it simmer for 10 minutes, being very careful not to let it burn. That said, you can also simply use a strainer to remove the lamb pieces from the sauce, it is incredibly flavorful and tender.

Spoon about a cup of stew into each plate. Arrange the sliced, blanched vegetables around the stew, then top with another ladle of sauce. The heat from the sauce will gently rewarm the vegetables.

Serve with a sprinkling of French sea salt and chopped parsley.

Bon appétit!

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